Contemporary counterinsurgency has been characterised by a shift from the ‘kill or capture’ of insurgents to prioritising winning over civilian populations. This focus on the population brings a particular skillset to the centre of military practice. Prioritising understanding culture, training, mentoring and relationships, practices previously associated with peacekeeping operations are conducted alongside combat. Feminist literature on peacekeeping has traced the relationship between entrenched hierarchies of gender and race in military institutions and abuses perpetrated by peacekeepers. This thesis contributes to that literature. It focuses on the British Armed Forces to analyse how identity is constructed in relation to contemporary counterinsurgency, in order to understand changing military roles and the potential impact on civilian populations. The thesis comprises a feminist discourse analysis of select British military doctrine. Doctrine draws together practice, teaching, and policy and offers a productive site to study institutional identity. The analysis shows how these non-combat practices are made sense of in relation to different configurations of masculinity, which don’t evoke combat or aggression. Nonetheless, they are constructed as masculine identities, hierarchical in organisation and constituting relations of power. I argue this recourse to masculinity enables the framing of non-combat practices as warfare and so valuable military activity. However, this framing simultaneously restrains the ways in which they can be understood. The thesis further highlights an ambiguity in the texts which argue both for widespread institutional adaption to the practices, and their limitation to a specific specialism and personnel. This ambiguity I argue is productive for an institution facing an uncertain future, leaving open possibilities for reform, or to revert to focussing on traditional understandings of core combat related military tasks. This thesis contributes to feminist debate about the possibility for military reform, and the capacity for Armed Forces to act as agents for peace. I argue that military reform is possible and occurring; the British Armed Forces are developing more sophisticated approaches to gender, human security and culture. However, whilst this is likely to have some benefit, the (re)establishment of gendered and raced hierarchies, limit the extent to which such reform offers meaningful change.

Text in Afrikaans / Tydens teeninsurgensie is daar 'n duidelik waarneembare intensivering van die burokratiese wedywering tussen die polisie en die militere, wat in wese om kwessies soos prestige, uitbreiding en modernisering sentreer. In die onderhawige studie is die problematiek rondom die rolverdeling van die polisie en die militere in teeninsurgensie aan die hand van die rewolusionere oorlog in Namibig, as 'n gevallestudie en met besondere verwysing na die rol van die polisie, ondersoek. In die studie word 'n aantal algemene bevindinge, sowel as 'n aantal primere en sekondere bevindinge gemaak. Die kern van die bevindinge bestaan uit 'n drieledige gevolgtrekking: eerstens dat die rolle van die polisie en die militere in teeninsurgensie komplementer is; tweedens dat daar 'n tydige en duidelike rolverdeling moet wees; en derdens dat, alhoewel die polisie 'n beperkte militere rol het, die swaartepunt van die polisie-teeninsurgensierol buite die militere dimensie geleg is. / During counterinsurgency there is a clearly perceptible intensification of the bureaucratic competition between the police and the military which, in essence, revolves around questions such as prestige, expansion and modernisation. In this study the problems surrounding the role division of the police and the military in counterinsurgency, as manifested in the revolutionary war in Namibia and with specific reference to the role of the police, were investigated as a case study. The study concludes with a number of general findings, as well as a number of primary and secondary findings. The nucleus of the findings consist of a threefold conclusion: Firstly, that the police and military roles in counterinsurgency are complementary; secondly, that there must be a timeous and clear role division; and thirdly, that although the police have a limited military role, the centre of gravity of the police counterinsurgency role lies outside the military dimension. / Political Sciences / M.A. (Strategiese Studies)

Local Self-Defence Militias as Counterinsurgents The Possibility, Willingness and Rationality of Selective Violence against Insurgents Autor: Jakob J. Gilg Submitted: 31.07.2019 Abstract How do local self-defence militias (LSDMs) influence violence against civilians in civil conflicts? Compared to other types of pro-government militias (PGMs), LSDMs are active in their home area. This results in abundant local information that can be used to identify and target insurgents and their supporters selectively. Furthermore, LSDMs are part of the local community, resulting in strong social ties, making indiscriminate violence against the community less likely. Finally, since LSDMs are dependent on popular support and cannot move on to a new area after violent acts, they are incentivised to retain local support by abstaining from civilian targeting. Therefore, I hypothesise that LSDMs are more likely to employ selective violence, and that their deployment decreases civilian fatalities in civil conflicts. To empirically test this claim in a global sample, I use 1) a logistic regression to assess the likelihood of selective violence of PGMs (H1), and 2) a negative binomial regression to evaluate the expected number of civilians killed by the government (H2). The results for the first hypothesis suggest an increased...

The lack of favorable outcomes produced by recent attempts at counterinsurgency by Western countries shows that the importance of uncovering a more effective approach for conducting external counterinsurgency operations cannot be downplayed. In an attempt to discover what this approach might entail, prior successful interventions conducted by democracies in the Philippines and Kenya were compared to the recent failure in Iraq, using three variable groupings as a lens through which to view all three conflicts and allow cross-conflict comparison of conditions that contributed to success or failure. Through evaluation of indicators linked to these variable groupings, it was determined that there were many similarities in conditions between the two successful examples and an inverse correlation for those conditions in the unsuccessful example. In order to be more successful in the future, intervening states should attempt to replicate the specified conditions found in Kenya and the Philippines, approach interventions with a strategic mindset, and execute interventions holistically instead of with a narrow tactical approach. Finally, planning for counterinsurgency contingencies during an intervention should start before the first dollar is spent or the first bullet fired.

The U.S. Army/Marine Corps Counterinsurgency Field Manual (FM 3-24) was published in 2006 and used by the military to consolidate counterinsurgency strategies and tactics and correct the growing military problems in Iraq. However, rather unusually, this military doctrinal publication was also heavily publicized through a wide array of media to the American public giving it an important role in political discourse and the rhetorical history of the U.S. ‘war on terror’. Beyond its military application, the FM 3-24 can be understood as a rhetorical device used by the Bush Administration to repair a collapsing ‘war on terror’ narrative and shore up plummeting public support for the war in Iraq, which had reached its lowest levels at the time of the manual’s publication. Still more important is the language in the text itself, which bears a conspicuous tone of benevolence, historically uncharacteristic to military doctrine. Despite this ‘spirit of goodwill,’ the FM 3-24, in fact, functions as a segment of the ‘war on terror’ narrative and an ideological vehicle for American global hegemony directed primarily toward American audiences. This view is justified by three main trends in the text: One, the manual omits mention of, or minimizes, the moral and political impact of military invasions on foreign countries that necessarily precede counterinsurgency operations; two, it relies fundamentally on legal arrangements with occupied countries that favor American prerogatives; and three, it reduces counterinsurgencies to a simple dichotomy between good and evil, the latter role being assigned to anyone who opposes the United States, which therefore denies the political complexities of that opposition. The FM 3-24 is a prescriptive document that has been 1) designed to militarily extend or reinforce American global power through counterinsurgency operations and 2) used politically to reproduce or justify particular attitudes in the American public that will foster support for those operations.

Why does counterinsurgency emerge during periods of warfighting failure and in crisis situations? How is it conceptualized and legitimized? As the second counterinsurgency era for the United States military ends, how such a method of warfare arises, grips the military, policy makers, and think tanks provides a tableau for examining how we conceptualize the strategy process and account for geostrategic change. This dissertation takes these puzzles as it object of inquiry and builds on the discursive-argumentative geopolitical reasoning and transactional social construction literatures to explore the ways in which the counterinsurgency narrative captures and stabilizes the policy boundaries of action. It conceptualizes strategy making as a function of defining the problem as one that policy can engage, as the meaning applied to an issue delimits the strategic options available. Once the problem is defined, narratives compete within the national security bureaucracy to overcome the political and strategic fragmentation to produce consensus. A narrative framework is applied to study counterinsurgency strategy during the Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghan wars. This framework examines the symbolic power and positioning of COIN advocates, hegemonic analogies and commonplaces used to legitimize COIN, and the romanticized language and imagery associated with COIN doctrine. These elements define the "who, what, where, and why" of the courses of action. Together these discursive resources serve as the building blocks for the counterinsurgency narrative and enable it to capture the geostrategic debate space. This narrative further defines how COIN is conceptualized in particular geostrategic contexts and how it is to be executed. The study concludes that by empirically tracing the ways in which the actors, analogies, and narratives are produced and deployed into war strategy debates the reasons for COIN's emergence in crisis periods can be determined. This allows for a thicker analysis of wartime and crisis decision making and a broader view of the ways in which strategy and policy are actually produced within the national security bureaucracy. In conceptualizing military strategy and policy in this way, we are better able to understand how dramatic changes in strategy occur and map the dynamics which enable that change to occur. / Ph. D.

Approved for public release; distribution in unlimited. / The level of violence has not only increased constantly over the last decades, but has also shifted in nature from conventional to unconventional. Given these circumstances, Romania's national interests call for the development of unconventional capabilities that are necessary in order to deal with current and future low intensity conflicts. This thesis analyzes the influence of language training and cultural understanding on the overall success of counterinsurgency campaigns. Examining some situations where the U.S. and British forces carried out counterinsurgency operations, this project reveals that ground troops with foreign language skills and cultural training were able to work more efficient with the local population. Cultural awareness facilitated communication and developed interpersonal trust. Additionally, language and cultural training enhanced military personnel's ability to understand the operational environment and to make a more selective use of force. The purpose of this thesis is not to promote a departure from conventional military training, but rather to propose the development of new Romanian military capabilities, the performance of which will increase through a better exploitation of language and cultural resources. / Captain, Romanian Army

<p>Begreppet counterinsurgency har fått stor uppmärksamhet efter 2001 och USA:s militäraengagemang i Afghanistan och Irak. USA har bedrivit ett gediget utvecklingsarbete sedan dess och en ny doktrin för just counterinsurgency presenterades 2006. Redan 1964 utkom fransmannen David Galula med en bok i ämnet. Det har alltså funnits teorier om counterinsurgency sedan dess. Sovjetunionens engagemang i Afghanistan under 1980-talet slutade med att den afghanska kommunistregimen kollapsade. Viljan att vinna konflikten borde ha funnits där och precis som USA har dragit erfarenheter, borde något ha gjorts för att försöka vinna konflikten även på 1980-talet. Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka om de parter som försökte besegra den afghanska motståndsrörelsen gjorde det på ett sätt som kom att likna Galulas teorier om counterinsurgency. Konflikten har analyserats utifrån Galulas teori om upprorsbekämpning med både politiska och militära medel. Analysen har visat att Sovjetunionen och den afghanska kommunistregimen inte utvecklade sitt sättatt hantera konflikten i en riktning som motsvarade Galulas teorier. Den primära politiska orsaken var att regimen förlitade sig på förtryck för att försöka avskräcka motståndssympatier. Detta tillvägagångssätt ledde istället till ökat stöd för motståndsrörelsen. Militärt saknades medlen att befästa närvaro i nya områden där regimen kunde ha börjat utöva inflytande. I förlängningen innebardet att regimen saknade förmåga att bredda sin inflytandesfär.</p> / <p>The term counterinsurgency has received a lot of attention since 2001 and the U.S commitment in Afghanistan and Iraq. The U.S has conducted thorough developmental work since then and a new doctrine on counterinsurgency was presented in 2006. As early as 1964, the Frenchman David Galula issued a book on the subject, and there have existed theories on counterinsurgency ever since. The Soviet Union’s commitment in Afghanistan during the 1980s ended with the collapse of the Afghan communist regime. The will to win the conflict should have been present there, and in the same way that the U.S have capitalized on their experiences something ought to have been done to try to win the conflict during the 1980s. The purpose of this study is to examine whether the parties involved in the fight against the Afghan resistance acted in a way that resembles Galula’s theories on counterinsurgency. The conflict has been analyzed with Galulas theories on how to defeat an insurgency by both political and military means. The analysis has shown that the Soviet Union and the Afghan communist regime did not develop their way of handling the conflict in a way which is consistent with Galula’s theories. The primary political cause was that the regime put its trust in oppression in their attempts to discourage resistance sympathies. This approach resulted in an increase in support for the Afghan resistance rather than the support of the regime. Militarily, the lack of means to secure the regime’s political presence in new areas meant that the regime was unable to broaden its sphere of influence.</p>

<p>Inom det akademiska studieområdet som berör underrättelseverksamhet finns inte någon vedertagen teori. Teorier avseende vad underrättelsetjänst är och hur den skall bedrivas varierar. Vidare har nationella särintressen stor inverkan vid utformningen av dessa. Inom den militära kontexten är läget i vissa stycken annorlunda. Dagens multinationella operationer kräver samarbete inom en rad olika områden inklusive underrättelsetjänst. I denna uppsats genomförs en studie av tre doktriner/handböckerna avseende underrättelsetjänst. Dessa undersöks utifrån de tre perspektiven Ledning, Adaptivitet och Samarbete. Syftet med detta är att finna vad dessa dokument framhåller som viktigt för underrättelsetjänstens utövande. Dessa viktiga punkter används därefter för att konstruera ett analysverktyg som kan undersöka huruvida dessa doktriner är implementerade inom en för närvarande högaktuell doktrin, FM 3-24 Counterinsurgency. Utifrån de doktriner och handböcker som denna undersökning har baserats på finns tydliga samband mellan hur underrättelsetjänst utövas mellan Sverige, USA och NATO. Detta trots det faktum att vissa variationer kring begrepp och upplägg förekommer mellan styrdokument. Samarbete utgör ett centralt begrepp mellan samtliga underrättelsedokument och förefaller även vara viktigt inom FM 3-24. Vikten av interoperabilitet inom underrättelsetjänsten, som samtliga underrättelsedokument betonar, tycks inte vara implementerad inom FM 3-24.</p> / <p>Within the academic field of intelligence studies, there is no established theory. Theories regardingwhat intelligence is and how it should be conducted vary, and national interests have a major impact in the design of these. Within the military context, the situation is different in certain aspects. Today's multinational operations require cooperation in a variety of areas, including intelligence. In this essay a study of three doctrine/manuals is presented. These are examined from three perspectives, Control, Adaptivity, and Cooperation. The purpose of this is to find what these documents present as important for intelligence exercise. These important points are then used to construct an analysis tool that examine whether these doctrines are implemented in a currently highly topical doctrine, FM 3-24 Counterinsurgency. This study shows a clear link between how intelligence services are organized in Sweden, the United States and NATO. This despite the fact that some variation around concepts and structures exists between their regulatory documents. Cooperation is a central concept among all intelligence documents and appears to be important in FM 3-24. The importance of interoperability within the Intelligence Service, as all intelligence document stresses, does not seem to be implemented in FM 3-24.</p>

Inom det akademiska studieområdet som berör underrättelseverksamhet finns inte någon vedertagen teori. Teorier avseende vad underrättelsetjänst är och hur den skall bedrivas varierar. Vidare har nationella särintressen stor inverkan vid utformningen av dessa. Inom den militära kontexten är läget i vissa stycken annorlunda. Dagens multinationella operationer kräver samarbete inom en rad olika områden inklusive underrättelsetjänst. I denna uppsats genomförs en studie av tre doktriner/handböckerna avseende underrättelsetjänst. Dessa undersöks utifrån de tre perspektiven Ledning, Adaptivitet och Samarbete. Syftet med detta är att finna vad dessa dokument framhåller som viktigt för underrättelsetjänstens utövande. Dessa viktiga punkter används därefter för att konstruera ett analysverktyg som kan undersöka huruvida dessa doktriner är implementerade inom en för närvarande högaktuell doktrin, FM 3-24 Counterinsurgency. Utifrån de doktriner och handböcker som denna undersökning har baserats på finns tydliga samband mellan hur underrättelsetjänst utövas mellan Sverige, USA och NATO. Detta trots det faktum att vissa variationer kring begrepp och upplägg förekommer mellan styrdokument. Samarbete utgör ett centralt begrepp mellan samtliga underrättelsedokument och förefaller även vara viktigt inom FM 3-24. Vikten av interoperabilitet inom underrättelsetjänsten, som samtliga underrättelsedokument betonar, tycks inte vara implementerad inom FM 3-24. / Within the academic field of intelligence studies, there is no established theory. Theories regardingwhat intelligence is and how it should be conducted vary, and national interests have a major impact in the design of these. Within the military context, the situation is different in certain aspects. Today's multinational operations require cooperation in a variety of areas, including intelligence. In this essay a study of three doctrine/manuals is presented. These are examined from three perspectives, Control, Adaptivity, and Cooperation. The purpose of this is to find what these documents present as important for intelligence exercise. These important points are then used to construct an analysis tool that examine whether these doctrines are implemented in a currently highly topical doctrine, FM 3-24 Counterinsurgency. This study shows a clear link between how intelligence services are organized in Sweden, the United States and NATO. This despite the fact that some variation around concepts and structures exists between their regulatory documents. Cooperation is a central concept among all intelligence documents and appears to be important in FM 3-24. The importance of interoperability within the Intelligence Service, as all intelligence document stresses, does not seem to be implemented in FM 3-24.